A good online collaboration software makes it easy for teams to work together efficiently. Whether the team is working on a general admin task or a specific project, collaboration tools make it simpler for information to flow.
Online collaboration has become the new normal for companies and offices. Employees no longer expect to be cut off from each other while they work. This increasing focus on collaboration is supposed to bring about improved productivity and efficiency at the workplace.
However, you can only achieve higher productivity levels if the collaboration software you use is good enough. Are you having trouble deciding which online collaboration software to use for your business?
This post will discuss the best collaboration softwares that you can use to increase your work teams’ efficiency. Most of them offer cloud document storage, video conferencing features, and other interesting tools.
7 Top Online Collaboration Tools for 2022
Here are the seven best collaboration softwares that you can consider for your business in 2022.
1. Microsoft 365
Image taken from Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office has been the most used and popular collaboration software that’s available all over the world. Though it has a few competitors, such as Google Workspace and OpenOffice, these have not yet been able to catch up with the same level of ease of use and functionality as Microsoft Office. That’s why Microsoft Office is considered to be the heart of most workplaces.
Microsoft 365, which is a cloud-based collaboration software, offers a significant number of benefits to users. The most basic of its features allows teams to directly collaborate on the same set of files or documents simultaneously. The documents could be in any format, such as a Powerpoint presentation, an Excel sheet, or a report as a Word file.
Microsoft 365 these days come in bundled packages that usually include Microsoft Teams, which allows unified collaboration integrated with Microsoft Office. Microsoft 365 is compatible with not only Windows but also with Mac, iOs and Android.
Its pricing varies for personal and business use. The minimum fee starts from $6.99 per month per use. Its business plan requires you to pre-pay for a whole year. A cheaper alternative to Microsoft 365 for business use is Microsoft 365 Business Basics, which provides most of the collaboration tools mentioned above.
2. Slack
Image taken from Slack
Slack needs no introduction. It has recently grown so much in popularity that every business has at least tried it out once or is currently using it for collaboration in at least one of its departments. It is one of the mightiest collaboration tools and has millions of users around the world.
The platform is brilliant and can be accessed on both desktop and mobile devices. It allows users to send direct messages and files to groups of people as well as to individuals. Conversations can be organized and categorized into different channels. This helps keep the discussion in every channel quite specific and relevant to creating that channel.
This collaboration software also supports video calls. Employees working remotely use this feature quite frequently to discuss projects in-depth, without having to type all the details and share through direct messages.
Slack is not a cloud storage service but allows you to drag and drop files into its channels to share them with your colleagues. It is compatible with Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. A free version of this collaboration software is the most popular and comes with certain limitations.
3. Asana
Image taken from Asana
This online collaboration software has been available since 2008. Some outstanding clients include Uber, TED, Pinterest, and Intel, using it as their core collaboration software.
Asana has an easy-to-use interface designed for companies that do not have much tech-savvy staff. It allows you to build to-do lists for your ongoing projects and set reminders for any upcoming deadlines. You can also use it to send requests to your colleagues or assign comments to posts made within the tool.
Projects in Asana are organized in a board format. Its search function enables you to locate past work. Overall, this collaboration software makes your work super organized and helps you coordinate with your colleagues regarding projects and task updates.
4. Trello
Image taken from Trello
Trello is one of those tools that offer combined project management software and collaboration software. It helps you organize your projects and collaborate on the progress with your team members.
It also allows you to create boards and lists for different tasks and projects. You can assign comments to cards for giving feedback on the work of your team members.
Trello can be integrated with several apps, like GitHub, Evernote, Slack, and Google Drive. It can be downloaded for free, but the premium version gives you access to a lot more administrative features than its free version. It also has an enterprise package, for which you pay according to the number of users.
5. Podio
Image taken from Podio
Podio is a flexible and customizable collaboration software used for collaboration among team members. It allows you to deal with huge stacks of work in an organized fashion and assign tasks to different employees.
Like the other best collaboration softwares, Podio lets you share files, get feedback on the work done, and check the status of the ongoing work. It provides an easy-to-use interface that any non-techy person can get familiar with within no time.
Podio can be accessed on mobile phones through its app. It can be integrated with several third-party services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Zendesk, and Evernote.
6. Ryver
Image taken from Ryver
This collaboration software is similar to Slack. It provides a highly effective means of collaboration and helps teams meet deadlines and talk to each other online easily. It allows you to create as many teams as you like. You can set up chats with individuals and with groups.
Ryver offers some unique filters. For example, you can restrict the readers of your posts in the app. The posts appear in a newsfeed that’s similar in design to Facebook newsfeed. Posts can be marked to get back to at a later time.
The premium version of Ryver offers advanced team collaboration features.
- Flock
Image taken from Flock
This is another collaboration software that supports channels for conversations on different topics, just like Slack. It has a search feature that allows users to search for comments, links, or files through lengthy conversations. Its collaboration tools are quite comprehensive, including video calling, audio messaging, screen sharing, note sharing, creating polls, and more.
Flock can be integrated with third-party apps like Twitter and Google Drive. Notifications of the integrated apps appear directly in the Flock channels. The free plan of this collaboration software limits searches to 10,000 messages and storage to 5GB. Its pro plan gives unlimited search, storage space of 10GB, and extraordinary admin control. It also has an enterprise plan that comes with dedicated customer support.
Using Strikingly as a Collaboration Software
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly is a web development platform that comes with tons of tools that allow you to add unique features to your website. Signing up for an account on this platform is free. Most of the elements required to build a basic website are also part of its free plan.
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly provides a team management tool that allows you to invite your colleagues and friends to edit, update or manage your website. Ten team members can be invited to manage each of your Strikingly websites.
Image taken from Strikingly
Image taken from Strikingly
You can then assign different roles to the team members, such as admin, editor, store manager, blogger, agent etc.
This collaboration feature of Strikingly helps you reduce your workload by allowing others to work on your website maintenance as well. All team members can access the website they are playing a role for on their Strikingly dashboard. Team members can make changes they want on the websites that are listed in the “Shared with Me” section in the dashboard. Simultaneous editing is allowed so all changes made by collaborators are reflected in the site editor in real-time.
Using Strikingly as a collaboration software in this way helps you designate different tasks to their relevant team members. For example, if your website has a simple store section, you can assign the job of keeping the store updated at all times to a team member with whom you give the role of a store manager. If you have a blog attached to your site as well, your content writer can be assigned the role of the blogger, so that he can keep publishing new articles on the blog every day.
Assigning specialized roles to your pool of skilled team members increases the overall productivity and efficiency of your website management.
When choosing a collaboration software for your company, keep in mind that it has to be easy to use and understand. It should empower your staff instead of making them feel demoted, and increase the efficiency of your teams to produce faster results. It should help you make the most out of your employees by keeping them well coordinated with each other.
